Mumbai infra: Even the BEST can be better

The two primary modes of public transport in Mumbai are crumbling under pressure. While the suburban railway network faces the problem of overcrowding, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) bus service is rapidly falling out of favour with commuters for various reasons.

The BEST began its journey in Mumbai as a tram service under the name of Bombay Tramways Company Limited in the early 1870s. In 1874, it brought the first horse-drawn tram on Mumbai roads and in 1907, it introduced electric trams. The bus service was launched on July 15, 1926, and the ride has been one with lots of ups and downs ever since.

At one point of time, the BEST buses ferried more commuters than the suburban locals as Mumbaiites found it more convenient that train travel. In 1989, BEST buses would carry 43 lakh passengers daily, while the suburban railway network was used by 39 lakh commuters. In 1993-94, this passenger count of BEST buses rose to its all-time high of 50.31 lakh, and while this number continued to remain high till 2008, when 43 lakh people used the buses, the past decade has been a tumultuous one for the undertaking.

The passenger count has currently dropped to 25 lakh and it continues to plummet. So what ails the BEST bus service?

Those managing the iconic bus service – at BEST, in the civic body and the state authorities – have not realised what they need to do to ensure that the second-largest mass transport system in the city stays ahead of times.

With changes in commuting patterns of Mumbaiites, where they now travel by app-based air-conditioned taxis, the BEST needs to modernise its fleet. Currently, BEST buses cannot be tracked anywhere in the city. Commuters cannot get any real-time updates and are forced to wait for a long time at bus stops. BEST has introduced ‘smart cards’ for ticketing, but the card is far from being smart.

Shutting down of popular routes and introduction of new routes under pressure of politicians and running of parallel routes is also one of the primary causes of the BEST bus service’s downfall.

The increasing vehicular population in the city over the past couple of decades, ongoing infrastructure work in several parts of the city and unregulated parking and hawking on roads has also added to the BEST’s woes. The congestion caused due to these reasons has led to the average speed of BEST buses dropping from 18kmph in 2005-2006 to 12kmph. Their daily average running distance too fell to 188km from 200km a decade ago.

For mitigating the losses, the BEST undertaking sharply increased bus fare in the past decade, making it one of the costliest modes of mass transport, forcing several commuters to switch to other modes of transport.

“Since BEST buses lost speed and punctuality owing to congestion on the roads, several commuters switched to the other modes of transport. Skyrocketing fares are also responsible for moving people away from the BEST buses. Several passengers, especially youngsters, bought two-wheelers, which are easy to manoeuvre in traffic and turn out to be cheaper,” said Dilip Patel, former deputy mayor and ex-BEST panel chairman.

BEST’s transport wing has been running in losses for the past 3-4 decades. In the past few years, however, the financial situation has deteriorated. The cumulative losses of the undertaking crossed Rs2,000 crore, with several factors responsible for it. BEST had been running its bus service by using profits that came from its electricity supply wing, which was doing well till 2003. After the Centre enacted the new Electricity Act, the BEST was restricted from cross-subsidising its transport wing. “BEST’s transport wing was never in profit since Independence. But there was no financial crisis as the undertaking was cross-subsidising the transport wing from the profit it earned from the electricity wing. Once that stopped in 2003, the problem began,” said Suhas Nalawade, former assistant general manager at BEST.

Big-ticket projects worth several thousand crores are either in progress or in the pipeline for meeting the city‘s transport needs. These include Metro corridors, railway corridors, Coastal Road, and the Trans-Harbour link, among others. However, neither the BMC nor the state government is keen to bail out BEST from its woeful situation, even though it is still relatively cheaper and popular mode of transport.

Last year, the transport body sought financial aid of Rs2,000 crore from the BMC to tide over the crisis. It even requested the state government to reduce various taxes so as to sail smoothly in the tough financial condition, but none of these came to rescue.

BMC chief Ajoy Mehta, on the other hand, came up with a revamp plan, which he claimed could help BEST save ₹700-₹800 crore. The plan included shutting operations on loss-making routes, getting private buses on lease, cutting down staff facilities, perks and a fare hike.

“We now have excess mobility for the rich, who drive for pleasure at breakneck speeds, while the poor are immobilised. With the present bus fares, my domestic help spends much more in a month for her trip between Dharavi and Bandra West, than a person would spend on a monthly first-class suburban railway pass between Bandra and Churchgate,” said Vidhyadhar Date, conveyer of Aamchi Mumbai Amchi BEST.

Transport experts say there should be some conscious steps – reduction in BEST bus fares – taken to bring back commuters to the service. Modernisation of fleet and state-of-the-art passenger addressing systems is some of the basic facilities that need to be introduced. Experts said besides financial help, what BEST desperately needs is “right of way”, either in form of dedicated bus corridors on major roads or Bus Rapid Transit System.

AV Shenoy, transport expert, said: “Railways and Metro are able to maintain speed and punctuality only because of Right of Way (RoW). Hence, it is essential that BEST being a public service also needs to be provided RoW by providing Bus Priority Lanes on roads. Once improvement in speed and punctuality is regained, commuters who have moved away from BEST will return.”